1. Field of the Invention
This application pertains generally to dental hygiene products and more particularly to a hinged floss handle with beaded dental floss for flossing teeth.
2. Description of Related Art
The removal of food particles and plaque from between the teeth is an important part of good oral hygiene because these particles may not be removed with brushing alone. Dental flossing is an effective method for removing matter from between teeth.
Flossing is an often unpleasant but necessary routine. The conventional method for flossing teeth involves grasping opposite ends of a length of dental floss with each hand, and manually manipulating the floss back and forth between the teeth. Anyone who has performed this task is well aware that the nature of dental floss inherently makes it difficult to securely grasp and tautly hold a tensioned strand of floss while maneuvering and manipulating the suspended section between all the teeth. Because dental floss is intentionally smooth to ease its movement between teeth, it is difficult for the user to obtain a secure grip. It is often necessary to create tension in the length of dental floss to facilitate the placement of the floss between the teeth. Consequently, the ends of the floss are typically wrapped around the fingers of the user to maintain tautness.
Those who have flossed in this conventional manner have experienced the discomfort that accompanies fingers that are tightly wrapped with floss. Often the wrapped fingers turn purplish and begin to numb due to a lack of blood flow. If skin is soft, such as after showering or bathing, some low friction flosses (i.e. Glide) will cut the fingers. Such inconveniences and difficulties spurred the development of various devices to hold the dental floss while teeth flossing. For example, one device developed to alleviate such problems provides short sections of floss with stub sections or gripper handles at both ends of the floss section.
Another device that was developed to hold dental floss included a pair of sleeves fitted over the index fingertips of each hand. One sleeve served as the supply sleeve containing pre-wound floss, and the other sleeve served as the take-up sleeve for receiving spent floss. To floss, both fingers with the sleeves are required to be inserted into the mouth with a section of floss suspended between the sleeves to allow the user to floss between the teeth. Tension is provided to the floss by the fingers of each hand drawing each end of the floss in opposite directions.
One problem common to both of the foregoing flossing devices is that at least one finger from both hands must be inserted into the mouth, especially when flossing between the rear molars. This often proves to be unwieldy and cumbersome as the mouth must be fully opened to allow insertion of the fingers therein.
A further problem which has not been fully appreciated in the art is that of encouraging individuals to regularly floss their teeth, both adults and children.
Accordingly, there is a need for a low cost, dental flosser that can floss teeth without requiring the placement of the fingers of the user into the mouth and is capable of exerting tension on the floss for easy disposition of the floss between teeth. The present invention satisfies this need, as well as others, and overcomes the deficiencies found in the prior art.